My little fella, Gunnar, just turned 4 months old (awww). I made up a flirt pole for him and he likes it for short intervals (10-15 minutes) and is the best source of exercise I've found for him so far.

However, I recently read that it's not recommended for a pup under 1 year of age to use a flirt pole because the stress on their joints can damage their growth plates. But if this is true, what else can I do?? He gets plenty of mental stimulation; we love obedience training (because, you know, bits of chicken heart), but the pole is the best physical exercise I've found for him. Does anyone have any advise?

Keep your flirtpole going along the ground rather than up in the air and don't let him work himself to exhaustion. Spend part of your time teaching him "out," and also teaching him to sit or down before he goes after it, that way you're breaking up the intense part of the exercise with some mental work. Flirtpole for puppies is good in moderation. Make sure you're mixing it up with other exercise like walks and such.

Thanks, guys! I'll see what I can do about a spring pole...we live in an apartment complex so it makes it a little more difficult, but there's a nice field next to us where I could do something. We go for long walks, but that's mostly to work out his anxiety about new places. He gets most of his energy out when he gets a 'wild hair' and runs wild around the field!

I'll look into a spring pole and will work on commands with the flirt pole, too